Government may allow BS-IV vehicle registration beyond April 1, 2020

Vehicle makers cannot manufacture BS-IV vehicles beyond March 31, 2020, but there will be some window to register such vehicles beyond April 1, 2020.

NEW DELHI: In what may come as a relief to the automotive industry, the government is considering allowing registration of Bharat Stage-IV vehicles beyond April 1, 2020, which is the deadline to adopt the BS-VI standards on emission.

Production of BS-IV vehicles, though, wouldn’t be permitted from April 1, 2020, show the draft rules published by the Ministry of Road, Transport & Highways to amend the Central Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Rules, 2017. Such vehicles produced before the deadline could be registered until June 30 that year.

Vehicles that are driven away in the chassis form, such as trucks and buses, could get another three months, until September 30, 2020, to register, shows the draft.

Several manufactures had to record huge losses earlier this year after the Supreme Court banned the sale and registration of BS-III vehicles beyond March 31, 2017, which was the date set by the government to stop production of such vehicles. The government order at the time had not mentioned any timeframe for the liquidation of the stock at the cut-off date. The March 29 order gave the industry just two days to liquidate inventory and led to a distress sale.

The new proposal with a clear window period for registration may prevent such a situation when the country transitions to the BS-VI standards from BS-IV, by skipping the BS-V stage. “The transition to BS-VI emission norms from April 1, 2020 is likely to be more structured,” said a senior executive at a commercial vehicle manufacturer, who did not wish to be named.

“Vehicle makers cannot manufacture BS-IV vehicles beyond March 31, 2020, but there will be some window to register such vehicles beyond April 1, 2020.” As per the draft notification, “New motor vehicles conforming to Emission Standard Bharat Stage-IV, manufactured before 1st April 2020, shall not be registered after 30th June 2020.” Also, new BS-IV motor vehicles of categories M&N, manufactured before April 1, 2020 and sold in the form of driveaway chassis, shall not be registered after September 30, 2020, it said.

Category M comprises vehicles having at least four wheels and used for the carriage of passengers, while category N refers to goods carriers. The ministry has sought comments on the draft until the third week of this month and the final rules will be notified after that.

Manufactures were saddled with an inventory of about 824,000 vehicles — 671,000 twowheelers, 96,700 commercial vehicles, 40,048 three-wheelers and 16,198 passenger vehicles — valued at an estimated Rs 14,000 crore after the Supreme Court banned the sales and registration of BS-III vehicles on March 29 this year.

Even after resorting to record discounting to liquidate stocks in the next two days , the industry was left with 120,000 BS-III vehicles of worth an estimated Rs 5,000 crore.

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